Biographical Data :

Jameel Mazhari was a versatile Urdu poet absorbed in the themes of Allah, Man and the Universe – dejected as a lover, fiery as a revolutionary, ecstatic as a devotee and indomitable as a worshipper.

‘Mathnavi Ab-o-Sarab’ (The Masnavi of water and mirage), a long poem (1963), is Jameel’s philosophy where he evocatively observes that Man is afflicted by an unquenchable thirst for he has neglected Allah’s purpose in making him His nominee on earth and ritual prayer distanced man from the will required to conquer the universe.

During the Quit India Movement of 1942, the country’s independence movement, he resigned in writing from a government post using his own blood as ink. He was jailed promptly under the Security Act imposed by the colonial British ruler.

Jameel Mazhari’s friendship with Josh Malihabadi landed him in India’s Bollywood industry. He wrote lyrics for ‘Kurukshetra’ (1945), songs for ‘Jhooti Qasmein’ and ‘Baghawat’ and, in 1946, he wrote the story, dialogues and lyrics of a film on Waris Shah, which was exhibited in 1982 after his death.